"Nina's coming over in a little bit." I told him, just to give him fair warning.
"Uh." He grunted, his head never turning.
When Nina arrived we went up to my room. This was not out of desire to make out or out of embarrassment at the state of my father but simply to keep the noise level downstairs, where both my parents were, to a minimum. They probably weren't in the mood for excessive chatter.
We sat on my bed talking while a Simon and Garfunkle album played on the turntable at low volume. Since my return I'd re-discovered the fact that most music from the eighties really sucked. This was probably due to the advent of MTV, which had made it necessary for a band to LOOK good on camera instead of to produce good music. Since I could not hear music from the nineties, when this fad had balanced out a bit, I had turned, in desperation, to listening to music from the seventies and sixties. To my surprise and delight much of it was actually pretty good and even deep. I'd even managed to get Nina interested in some of it.
We were discussing the track called "The Boxer" when the sound of the doorbell ringing from downstairs registered on my consciousness.
"So you see," I explained. "He's a musician that tried to make it in New York and failed the first time. That's what the lyrics basically say. It's the last verse that really sums it up, tells you that he was defeated but that he remains a fighter from the experience."
"It's actually like poetry." Nina, an aficionado of poetry told me.
"Yes." I nodded. "That's what any really good song lyric is like. That's what they should strive for. That's what a lot of the crap they're putting out these days is lacking in. They simply try to repeat the same phrase over and over while they dance and come up with a bitchin beat from their synthesized drums. That's not music, that just…"
I stopped suddenly, hearing the sound of raised voices drifting up from below. My Dad's was one of them. He was trying to patiently explain something to someone but the someone in question kept overriding his words. When the words 'where is she' drifted up from the owner of the other voice, Nina's ears perked up.
"Dad!" She said suddenly. "That's Dad!"
"Oh shit." I mumbled, hearing MY dad start to raise his own voice.
"What do we do?" Nina asked me. "What is my dad doing here?"
"I guess we'd better go find out." I said, already knowing. "Before our dads start exchanging punches with each other."
"Bill?" She asked, looking really scared now.
"C'mon." I said, standing up. "My dad is younger but your dad was in the war. I don't want MY dad to get hurt."
"Bill!" Came Dad's voice from downstairs. "Would you and Nina come down here for a minute?"
"C'mon." I told her. "The jig is apparently up."
"Oh God Bill." She said, shaking her head.
When we got downstairs we found my dad, still dressed in his robe, still unshaven and looking like shit, facing off against Nina's Dad, who was clean shaven and dressed in slacks and a sweater, over the threshold of the front door. When he saw Nina he took an angry step forward.
"Get your butt down here girl!" He yelled. "How dare you tell me you were going to visit a friend and then take our car over here to this slimy scumbag's house!"
"Dad!" Nina yelled back, not moving forward.
"Now just a minute!" Dad put in angrily. I could tell he was reaching the end of his fuse. "Where do you get off coming to my house and calling my son…"
"Your son is the scum of the earth!" Mr. Blackmore put in. "And you Sir, are the man who raised him with the values of a rutting pig. That makes you a rutting pig in my book and I have no further words to pass with the likes of you. I have come for my daughter before your son violates her in some god-forsaken way. I only hope and pray it hasn't happened yet. Nina, get over here now!"
"Dad!" Nina cried, tears on her cheeks now. "What are you doing? I love Bill!"
"Love?!" He screamed, turning to me. "You are the lowest form of life on this earth young man. Nina, NOW!" He commanded.
She opened her mouth to say something else but I spoke first.
"You'd better go with him." I told her.
"What?" She asked, looking at me as if I'd betrayed her.
"Nothing can be accomplished right now." I said. "This situation can only get worse. Go with him and try to talk to him. Tell him what I'm like."
"I KNOW what you're like." Mr. Blackmore told me. "I know exactly what you're like."
"Now you listen here!" Dad yelled, taking a step forward. "My son…"
"Dad." I said sharply, using my adult voice. "Let it go. It'll be all right."
Dad paused with his mouth open. He didn't look like he wanted to let it go and I was absurdly touched by this. My Dad, one of the mildest mannered people I knew, seemed on the verge of violence because someone was slandering his son's reputation.
"It's okay Dad." I told him again. "Let it go."
"Get out here Nina!" Mr. Blackmore said again. "Now!"
"Bill?" Nina asked again, looking miserable.
"Go Nina." I told her. "Talk to him. It's for the best. But wait until he's cooled down a little. And remember that I love you."
"Love?" He repeated. "You truly are…"
"Hey!" I barked, taking a step towards him, my eyes boring into his. It had the desired effect, he stopped talking and looked at me. "You have what you came for." I told him. "Nina is leaving with you, right Nina?"
"Yes." She cried.
"You don't need to stand here and continue to throw insults at me. Just go."
We stared at each other for a moment and I could see in his eyes that he was starting to glimmer that he wasn't dealing with an ordinary teenager. Finally he nodded. "C'mon Nina." He told her. "Let's go."
She gave me one last look and then followed her father out the door. She climbed into her mother's car while Mr. Blackmore climbed into his. A second later they were gone, leaving Dad and I standing in the doorway.
We looked at each other for a moment.
"Apparently Mr. Blackmore doesn't care too much for you?" He asked mildly.
I suppressed a smile. "Apparently not." I agreed.
He shut the door and looked at me for a moment. He rubbed his temples. "What are you going to do now?" He asked.
"Give it a few days." I said. "That's what I'm going to do. Hopefully Nina will be able to bring him around to at least tolerating me."
"And if she doesn't?"
I shrugged. "I love her Dad." I said. "I plan to marry her some day. I don't think her Dad is strong enough to keep us apart. One way or another we'll be together. Although I'd prefer to be with her with her Dad's consent. If she can't bring him around I guess I'll go over and have a talk with him. Maybe that will help."
"Or maybe he'll shoot you dead on his porch." Dad suggested half-seriously.
"Ahh Dad," I said. "At least that way I'd die poetically. In the name of love. Wouldn't that be glorious?"
Dad continued to stare at me, not even cracking a smile at my glory of love line. Finally he said, "Bill, don't you think it's about time you had a little talk with ME?"
"A talk?" I asked.
"A talk." He confirmed. "I should have brought this up before now and I really wish that the straw that broke the camel's back hadn't happened on a day that I was hung over, but I really think it's time."
"What are you talking about Dad?" I asked weakly.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about." He told me. "It happened nearly two years ago now. One day you were Bill the underachiever. A nasty, typical teenager that didn't want anything to do with his parents, that hated his sister, that wouldn't listen to a word anyone told him. The very next day you were cleaning your room, improving your grades, making great strides to improve your relationship with Tracy, and…" He paused, "And you became somewhat of a hit with the girls. Much more of a hit than I've ever seen anyone be, adult or teenager. Something happened to you, something big, and it changed you completely. Sometimes you seem very adult in manner. VERY adult. In fact you almost seem like someone who has seen a little bit of everything. At the same time you've made frighteningly accurate predictions about the stock market and events in the news. So how about we start to talk about it?"